At Build 2016 Windows phones were barely mentioned during Microsoft’s introducing keynote. This was not totally surprising though as we already knew that Microsoft has massively retrenched in mobile since the write-off of the $7.6 billion dollar Nokia acquisition last July. So do you think that Microsoft is giving up Windows phone? and this is what against Microsoft's “mobile first, cloud first” strategy. Recently,Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has given an extended interview to Business Insider,Let's see what he thinks of Windows phone right now.
"First of all, I don’t think of Windows for mobile differently than Windows for HoloLens, or Windows for Xbox now. We have only one Windows. We don’t have multiple Windows. They run across multiple form factors, but it’s one developer platform, one store, one toolchain for developers. And you adapt it for different screen sizes and different input and output.
But what we get….I’m not trying to be another phone guy with the other person’s rules. What is unique about our phones is this Continuum feature. If anything we will want to continue to build that capability out. Just like how with Surface we were able to create a category. Three years ago most people would have said: “what is a two-in-one”? And now even Apple has a two-in-one. And so three years from now, I hope that people will look and say, “Oh wow, that’s right, this is a phone that can also be a PC.”
Take emerging markets. India for sure is a mobile-first country. But I don’t think it will be a mobile-only country for all time. An emerging market will have more computing in their lives, not less computing, as there is more GDP and there is more need. As they grow they will also want computers that grow from their phone. What’s the most logical thing? I would claim it’s a Continuum phone, which means that it can have other forms of input beyond touch."
So the point is Microsoft is not giving up on Windows Phone,just not focus on it in 2016.
In the interview with Business Insider Nadella continues to push Continuum as the differentiator and future of mobile technology noting that Microsoft is no longer playing "with the other person's rules."
Maybe just as some other medias says Microsoft did not announce anything on mobile at Build...by design,Microsoft now has a real vision for Mobile for the next five to ten years,that is a 'PC in your pocket'.